Serving Pancakes

After recapping week seven of the League One Volleyball season – including plenty of focus on Khat’s 11-kill performance Thursday night against LOVB Salt Lake – both Khat and Tiffany talk with LOVB broadcaster Anne Marie Anderson. The trio talk about the LOVB season so far, the moment women’s sports is currently having, and being a woman in sports broadcasting in addition t...

With LOVB Houston’s win at the LOVB Classic fresh in mind, Tiffany recaps the on-court action while Khat chats with a few of her fellow athletes about the environment in Kansas City. Later, Tiffany catches up with LOVB Omaha outside hitters Jaali Winters and Madi Kubik-Banks. The two share about the tight-knit team culture in Omaha, their shared experiences of junior volleyball in Iowa, advi...

Khat and Tiffany recap last week’s matches and preview this weekend’s LOVB Classic, an in-season tournament where all six teams will compete alongside Triple Crown NIT, the premier junior tournament in the nation. Tiffany also sat down with LOVB Houston’s Amber Igiede and Jess Mruzik. Both new to professional volleyball – Jess is a rookie and Amber is in her second pro year...

Tiffany and Khat begin the latest episode of Serving Pancakes by recapping week four and LOVB Atlanta taking the top spot of the league standings. They also welcome LOVB Atlanta outside hitter and founding athlete Kelsey Cook to the podcast. The trio chats about Kelsey being a leader on the team and in the league as a whole, her life abroad, the four-match win streak that Atlanta is currently on,...

Another exciting week of League One Volleyball action has come and gone. Host Tiffany Oshinsky and Co-host/LOVB Austin opposite Khat Bell break down all four matches of week three with the lovb and insight you’d expect from the duo.  Follow Khat on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) . Host: Tiffany Oshinsky Senior Producer: Anya Alvarez Executive Producers: Carrie Stett, Tamara Deike, a...

In this special episode recorded at League One Volleyball’s First Serve celebration in Atlanta, women’s sports advocates Ari Chambers and Jenny Nguyen join Serving Pancakes senior producer Anya Alvarez to discuss the moment that women’s sports is having right now. Both Ari and Jenny have created spaces dedicated to platforming and growing women’s sports – Ari in the d...

The League One Volleyball season has started! LOVB Austin opposite Khat Bell joins Tiffany as co-host, and the two break down what’s happened so far in the season with insights only an athlete who played in those matches can provide. The pair also chat with Khat’s teammate and LOVB Austin Founding Athlete Chiaka Ogbogu and LOVB Madison rookie Sarah Franklin, who joined the league as pa...

Madi Bugg and Molly McCage have been friends for over half their lives thanks to volleyball. Hailing from different parts of the country – Madi from North Carolina, Molly from Texas – they met through the U.S. Youth National Team. While at tryouts, training camps and competitions, they were drawn in by each other’s nerdiness plus love of reading and giggling. Now in their 30s, th...

  You cannot find someone more determined on the volleyball court than Khat Bell. The opposite hitter from Mesquite, Texas, has nothing but out-battled friends and opponents alike ever since finding volleyball in the seventh grade. In school, she beat out her friend for the final spot on the A team. At Texas, she gritted through a bulging disk to deliver an NCAA title. In South Korea, she fin...

After missing her grandfather’s funeral while playing overseas, Mariena Hayden was ready to come home. The outside hitter from Belle Plaine, Minnesota, had settled in with Greece’s ASP Thetis, but she couldn’t miss any more big moments. Luckily, League One Volleyball called with a roster spot four hours away from home with LOVB Madison. She jumped at the chance. Since, Mariena&rs...

  So far on Serving Pancakes , we’ve highlighted American players coming home to play professional volleyball for the first time. Alternatively, there are 27 international athletes coming to the U.S. for professional volleyball, including German opposite Kimberly Drewniok. Kimberly has played professionally in Germany, Italy, France, Türkiye and Serbia. She’s won four domestic titles in her career...

Fresh out of college, Anita Anwusi is making her pro debut this season in her hometown with LOVB Houston Volleyball. A first-generation college graduate, the middle blocker hails from a Nigerian family that was originally skeptical of her athletic career. After Anita’s initial success in high school and reassurance from LSU coaches, Anita’s parents trusted Anita to venture down the elite volleybal...

The preseason is here! League One Volleyball athletes are now arriving in their new homes, and one of those athletes is opposite hitter Audriana Fitzmorris. The Overland Park, Kansas, native has played professionally overseas for three seasons. Before her pro career, Audriana attended Stanford University and led the Cardinal to three NCAA titles in four years. In addition to massive success on the...

No. 3 Penn State picked up a big top-25 win at No. 16 USC over the weekend, and we thought it was the perfect excuse to chat with Penn State alum and LOVB Salt Lake middle Haleigh Washington. A two-time Olympic medalist with Team USA, Haleigh had barely considered playing professionally until legendary coach Russ Rose pulled her aside and encouraged her to put her all into a pro career. After two...

While many of League One Volleyball’s coaches and athletes are familiar with one another already, LOVB Salt Lake takes that to another level. Head coach Tama Miyashiro as coached at least eight LOVB Salt Lake athletes through her other role as U.S. National Team assistant, including middle blocker Serena Gray. Sererena and Tama both caught up with host Tiffany Oshinsky to chat about how that estab...

After nearly 30 years of coaching collegiate volleyball, LOVB Omaha Volleyball head coach Suzie Fritz is taking on a new challenge: leading a professional team during its inaugural season. She and host Tiffany Oshinsky chat about Suzie’s excitement for her new role and LOVB Omaha in general, success as a college coach, and the challenges of being a mother working in athletics in the latest episode...

October 14 is Indigenous Peoples' Day, and we’re honoring the occasion by chatting with middle blocker Lauren Schad. From Rapid City, South Dakota, Lauren is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Tribe and celebrates her culture as much as possible, which can be difficult for long parts of the year as she has played professionally in France for six seasons. Despite the distance, Lauren has always...

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Daly Santana was told that she could do everything she wanted to in volleyball. That mindset served the budding outside hitter well in her teenage years – especially when she joined the Puerto Rican National Team at age 16, and later on adapting to life at the University of Minnesota. Now, after a decade of pro competition, Daly has softened her approach…off the court, a...

Sarah Wilhite Parsons isn’t the loudest person on the court. Being overly vocal just isn’t in her nature, and she knows that. Sarah is, though, very self-assured, and she has a strong sense of who she is and what she wants from life. She’s used that to great effect. From leading by example to meeting her future husband while in college, Sarah’s been able to live her life according to her own faith...

Danielle Cuttino’s volleyball journey has been full of transitions. As a child, she transitioned from basketball to volleyball. On the court, she’s gone from middle hitter to outside hitter to opposite. After a move from Italy’s pro league to Brazil’s, she found faith and transitioned into a life of purpose. Now, Danielle’s back in the U.S. and helping volleyball transition into the next major lea...

A podium-worthy tandem of LOVB Houston middle blocker Amber Igiede and Olympic medalist Kim Hill recap the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for the U.S. National Team, who claimed silver after a loss to Italy in Sunday’s finale. Amber, Kim and host Tiffany Oshinsky recap the two-week tournament for the U.S., congratulate deserved winners Italy, and look ahead to the inaugural League One Pro season, which...

LOVB Austin Volleyball outside hitter Leah Hardeman relives and relishes in the amazing Olympic semifinal between the U.S. and Brazil. After recovering from the match, she and host Tiffany Oshinsky discuss Leah’s introduction to volleyball and the importance of being in a predominantly Black club during her development as an athlete and as a Black woman. That experience growing up has inspired Lea...

We’ve got two interviews for you this time! First, host Tiffany Oshinsky checks in with Olympic bronze medalist and LOVB Head of Pro Integration Courtney Thompson, who’s on the ground in Paris. The two chat about what it’s like to be in Paris for the Olympics, what the arena feels like, and the U.S.’ quarterfinal sweep of Poland, among other topics. Also, Audrey and Nicole Nourse, four-time NCAA b...

Volleyball is a lifelong sport, and no one knows this better than our two guests today. After an outstanding career at the University of Texas, Juliann Faucette played professionally overseas but twice decided to pause her career to start and grow her family. She’ll restart it again this winter as a member of LOVB Austin Volleyball. A former libero at Northwestern, Emily Ehman has remained in voll...

U.S. National Team and LOVB Austin Volleyball athletes Logan Eggleston and Asjia O’Neal were teammates at the University of Texas – successfully, too, winning the 2022 national title – and they’ll reunite this winter as members of LOVB Austin Volleyball. The two friends sat down with host Tiffany Oshinsky to talk Texas volleyball, U.S. vs. Serbia, and more.  Topics include:  Budding Friendship at...